David Simm Photography: Bio
David began a career in photography on glass plates, as a news and sport photographer with the local freelance agency. He was a regular at Wigan Rugby League Club and covered two national cup finals at Wembley for National News media. Fearing the end of newspapers, with the closure of The Daily Herald and The Daily Sketch in 1960, David turned his attention to commercial and social markets, quickly graduating to medium format with a Rollei 2.8F and black & white 120 film, and by 1967 was pioneering colour wedding photography and in-house processing at his Wigan, Lancashire, Studio.
David didn't altogether sever his connections with news media. He went on to produce 90% of the earliest colour images as The Wigan Observer moved into web offset printing at their, then new, Woods St. Works, and aspired to run full colour images on the front page and centre spreads, the limitation of their hybrid Littlejohn offset press.
With Lithographer, Harry Stopforth, Editor, Jack Winstanley a team of reporters, graphic artist, Mike Smith and the advertising dept., he was a part of one of the most successful & sophisticated editorial promotions of the day, that linked many of the local industries, the ownership, management and employees in the tremendously popular "Queen of Industry Pageant". It ran for weeks in each of several years , with David creating feature images of each company, portraits of all the entrants and spectacular full colour coverage of grand final.
As his business grew, he gradually left behind the news/sports/feature work to concentrate on pioneering the introduction of colour to wedding photography and was among the vanguard of photographers who were processing and printing colour in-house.
The early studios were in Newtown, along Ormskirk Road. It was in the nineteen seventies that he gambled on a move to town centre and acquired the spot on Market St., where he installed an automatic printing machine to output his wedding work, a 20" x 24" high pressure mounting press capable turning out wall size canvas portraits and all was going very well until a devious manouvre by Wigan Corporation, who simultaneously commenced construction work on all four arterial roads into town centre, in preparation for the compulsory purchase, (eminent domain), of all the businesses in the area of their proposed new down town Galleries shopping mall.
In the mass exodus that saw many old Wigan businesses slither in obscurity, especially those associated with the Market Hall, David Simm accepted a two year contract to head off for Saudi Arabia in 1985.
Already an accomplished social photographer, his time in Jeddah gave him the opportunity to expand his commercial industrial repertoire in photography for the Petroleum Industry, covering assignments for the Ministry of Petroleum & Mineral Resources (Petromin).
1985 ~ 1987 was a fabulous two year stint in Jeddah, Pearl of The Red Sea, KSA, creating industrial images at oil refineries and portraits in palaces, after which the family relocated to USA. Digital Capture became the standard for all work in 2001.
The Simm family came to USA in 1988 and after settling in Chicagoland, David set up studio in Glenview and built a solid reputation for high end multi-cultural wedding photography, the first photographer west of NY to offer GraphiStudio Italian Designer albums and had his own in-house design facility.
A highly qualified and energetic photographer, David Simm concentrates predominantly on portraiture, headshots and corporate imaging, for discerning clients who appreciate creativity and originality both for their home wall portraits and for business use, in addition to teaching photography to aspiring professionals. David Simm can be reached by phone 847 803 9450, by email david_simm_photo@comcast.net or by using the contact form below.
In Conclusion: during a career that spanned more than half a century, the driving force that kept David Simm striving for the cutting edge of the profession was the desire to create images that delight. Whether it was wedding photography, portraiture or corporate work it was always the fulfillment of his clients needs for photographs that bring happiness or in the case of corporate, success and their need to impress their own customers.
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David Simm F.S.W.P.P., M.o.S.
MASTER PHOTOGRAPHER
MASTER PHOTOGRAPHER
